Exorcist: The Beginning (August 19/04)

There's been a tremendous struggle to bring Exorcist: The Beginning to theaters, and having seen the end result, it's hardly been worth it.

John Frankenheimer was originally set to direct the film, but after he passed away, Paul Schrader got the gig instead. He reportedly turned in a movie that too was slow and cerebral for movie executives (gee, who'd have thought the guy behind rollicking adventures like Affliction and Light Sleeper would emerge with a slow and cerebral flick?), who promptly shelved his version and commissioned Renny Harlin to helm an entirely new film. Not having seen Schrader's version, it's impossible to know for sure which movie is better - but it's awfully hard to imagine that it could be worse than this.

As the title implies, Exorcist: The Beginning is a prequel to the original Exorcist - with Max von Sydow's Father Merrin now played by Stellan Skarsgard. When we first meet Merrin, he's a faithless drunk content to spend his days boozing it up at the local pub. He's wrestled out of his stupor by an offer to investigate a buried church in the middle of Egypt, but once there, weird things start to happen.

And that's exactly the problem. There's no real story here; once Merrin arrives in Egypt, the movie becomes painfully repetitive. There's a tangible sense of desperation on the part of screenwriter Alexi Hawley, who pads out the running time with absolutely pointless sequences and prolonged "suspenseful" moments. Harlin proves to be a terrible choice for this material, as his idea of creating an ambiance of terror consists solely of inundating us with one cheap scare after another (ie "oh, it was just a radio!" and other hackneyed staples of the horror genre).

Of course, the whole thing builds to an exorcism that's admittedly far more visceral than the one in the original, with the possessed figure climbing on walls and literally bending over backwards (the filthy mouth remains a highlight). Skarsgard even gets to utter those famous words ("the power of Christ compels you!"), but there's just something campy about the whole thing. A sequence in which the possessed character charges at Merrin like a bull is downright laughable, thanks primarily to some extremely shoddy special effects.

On the positive side of things, Skarsgard delivers an expectedly stellar performance - effectively channeling von Sydow's distinct persona. It's highly unlikely he had as little to do in Schrader's version, which presumably focused more on Merrin's struggle to regain his faith. Harlin instead places the emphasis on interminable sequences that feature various characters creeping around impossibly dark locations (Merrin is particularly guilty of this, traipsing about as though he were an idiotic teenager in a slasher film).

Here's hoping Schrader's version eventually sees some kind of release, because there's nowhere left to go but up.